Sunday Musings: NextDoor, Sheltering in Place... and STAYING in Place

Whereas I don't really "do" Facebook anymore — that all stopped when I grew disgusted with Humans during the 2016 Presidential Election campaigns — one of the social platforms I do use is an interesting little utility called NextDoor, which is basically a way to feel more connected to your local area.

Sorry, it's not available everywhere (yet) but if you live in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Australia, Denmark, Sweden or Canada, there's a version of NextDoor for you.

At times like we currently experience, NextDoor has been awesome because it covers what's going on in your neighborhood.

You might wonder how much that really means... but in our neighborhood (for example) 46% of all households are on NextDoor.

But I Digress...

One of the useful features is that NextDoor also sends updates from "officialdom," as it relates to what's going on right where you are.

You won't hear "What the President said," but you will hear what the local city government has said about hours of pickup for take-out food, or when the special shopping hours for senior citizens are.

My point here is that I have noticed how it's great — and sometimes disturbing — to keep up with global news, but currently it just feels much more relevant to be on top of what's directly affecting us, at the local level.

Stay-at-Home Order Extended

Meanwhile — to make a long story longer — part of yesterday's latest updates was the extension of the "Shelter-in-Place" order for Washington State, now till the end of May. Originally, some of the restrictions were supposed to have been lifted tomorrow, May 4th, but it looks like we'll have another month of this.

Oh well. So we stay in place a little longer.

Meanwhile, the utility of the NextDoor app continues to manifest. Mrs. Denmarkguy and I are expanding the capacity of our sustainable food growing area this year (Thank you, "economic stimulus!") and NextDoor was where I turned to find the best local source for a load of weed-free organic growing soil.

LOCAL matters.

What I mean is that it's great that we have access to the greater web to get "general knowledge," but that's little substitute for having some solid information from people right around you, who have actually interacted directly with and used the goods and services you are using.

In this increasingly global world, that bears remembering and should be assigned its appropriate importance! We still live where we ARE, and not somewhere out in the ethers.

Thanks for reading, and stay healthy!

How about YOU? Are you familiar with NextDoor? Do you have a reliable way to stay in touch with your local area, and what's going on there? Or are you relying on national/international news to make your choices? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200503 11:32 PDT
x015